Advice to my 2nd-Fund Self, with Polaris Private Equity

Growing a successful company is no easy feat. So we asked some of our clients what they wish they’d known as emerging managers. What advice do they wished they’d received when they were launching their second or third fund?

Are you a fund manager currently in growth mode? Discover Allvue’s Equity Essentials set to learn how we can help supercharge your growth.

DOWNLOAD WHITEPAPER: 5 STEPS EMERGING MANAGERS CAN TAKE TO ACCELERATE GROWTH

About the advice giver:

Polaris is an industry-leading private equity firm based out of the Nordics, with a track record stretching back over two decades. They recently implemented Allvue’s Fund Accounting, CRM, and Business Intelligence solutions to facilitate the launch of their fifth fund.

Joachim Satchwell, Associate Director at Polaris, spoke with us about the increasing complexity of managing multiple funds, and the increasing value of having a comprehensive back-office system to help manage it.

Joachim’s advice:

“A back-office system is increasingly valuable once you begin to have numerous funds and strategies. The first fund can be supported by the few back-office resources you will have anyway, but soon there will be a trade-off between adding more people or implementing an IT system. However, the latter has the added benefits of automation, high data security and consistency, and minimizing key man reliance.

“The time to implement a back-office system is when you are about to raise your third or fourth fund. By this time, you will have been active for 8-12 years and will have built up a credibility in the market that will enable you to begin to think about investing in growth. You could still get by on your legacy systems at that point, but since you already have several active funds and varying groups of investors, the complexity and administration processes will increase rapidly. Migrating to a back-office platform then – instead of later on, once three or four funds are live – will significantly simplify the implementation process and ensure you continue to have an efficient back-office.”